Ours is the Frontier

Product Description

G.W. Cross was one of the founders of the Baptist Union of South Africa, its first General Secretary, and four times its President. This biography traces the life of a pastor who was dearly loved and honoured in his time.

What kind of man was he? He was reserved and sometimes remote, yet he attracted many and diverse friends. Sensitive and imaginative, he would have liked to be a scholar, a writer, a poet, yet his time was increasingly taken up with practical affairs. In his early years in South Africa Cross found himself facing serious theological problems, and consequently withdrew from the ministry until he had found answers that satisfied his mind and heart. After five years he was able to return to the ministry with renewed vigour. His ministry was not confined to his church but also found expression in his service to the community.

His involvement in education, social service and the arts (especially literature) brought him into contact with some leading personalities of the time amongst whom were Olive Schreiner, Francis Carey Slater and the Rev. James Moffat. His life also touched the lives of President S.J.P. Kruger, President F.W. Reitz and General J.C. Smuts.

Cross’s 43 years in this country, from his arrival in 1877 to his death in 1920, span some of the most important events in its history – the discovery of gold in the Witwatersrand, the Anglo-Boer War, and the unification of the separate colonies as a British Dominion in 1910.

Product Detail
Paperback: 253 pages
Publisher: University of South Africa (1986)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0 86981 383 8
ISBN-13:
Product Dimensions:
Shipping Weight:
Average Customer Review:
Price: R75.00

To purchase a copy of this book please contact the Baptist Union Historical Society.

Bound for the Border

Product Description

Bound for the Border is the story of a number of interconnected journeys. Emigrants from Germany who started with next to nothing, faced unbelievable difficulties and suffered debilitating privations but by hard work indomitable determination and courageous faith they arrived at journeys end battered but not broken.

The journeys in question could be designated as the journey from poverty and homeland restrictions to the wide-open spaces, beautiful but intimidating; the journey from serfdom to self-possession; from ignorance to the open door of literacy; from abject poverty to comparative prosperity; from one culture to a multiplicity of cultures and that most important of all journeys for humankind from unrest to peace; from darkness to light and from unbelief to childlike faith. The guide for one section of the German Settlers was the Rev Hugo Gutsche backed by his loyal life partner Mary.

Sent from Germany to serve the small but fast-growing Baptist community Hugo Gutsche was in some important aspects a servant to the whole Settler family. The story of the outstanding contribution he made has recently become available through the translation of the Gutsche diaries by the Rev FH Haus covering 50 years of German Settler history.

The format of incident or anecdote plus illustration makes Bound for the Border a series of windows through which those connected with the German Settler family, both young and old, as well as the rest of us can be reminded of the foundational contribution they made to the history of our beloved country.

Product Detail

Title: Bound for the Border
Author: Sydney Hudson-Reed
Paperback: 186 pages
Publisher: South African Baptist Historical Society
Language: English
ISBN-10: 620 31118
ISBN-13:
Product Dimensions:
Shipping Weight:
Average Customer Review:

Price:

Trekking in South Central Africa 1913 - 1919

Product Description

Trekking in South Central Africa is a lively re-telling of the journey undertaken by C.M. Doke and his father, the Reverend Joseph J. Doke, from South Africa to the area known as Lambaland in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) in 1913, and of Doke's subsequent residence among the Lamba people during a seven-year period as a missionary.

The text can be read on a number of levels. It offers, first, an account of the shaping influences on the life of C.M. Doke. Secondly, the book recounts the trails and successes of seven years of missionary life, providing glimpses into everyday life at Kafulafuta Mission in the second decade of this century. Finally, the book provides the reader with a window on the natural history of Lambaland, seen through the eyes of Clement Doke.

The story of Doke's trek is interesting in its own right, but the later prominence of C.M. Doke as one of the most distinguished scholars on the African continent makes it a compelling document. Doke went from Kafulafuta Mission to establish and head the Department of African Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.

The text is preceded by an introduction by R.K. Herbert that contextualises the missionary experience in Central Africa and seeks to disentangle missionary and colonial orders.

Product Detail

Paperback: 210 pages
Publisher: Natal Witness Printing and Publishing (1993)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0 86814 231 0
ISBN-13:
Product Dimensions:
Shipping Weight:
Average Customer Review:

Price:

Mr Harry Hellyer

Harry Hellyer was a rare gift of God to the Baptist Union and South African Baptist Missionary Society. His services started in 1943 when, while still in secular work, he was appointed treasurer of the Baptist Union in which role he served without break until 1965.

His dedicated services proved to be of inestimable worth to the denomination and in 1948 he was appointed as treasurer of the South African Baptist Missionary Society as well.

During the long period of service he saw the work grow from a part-time appointment to one that demanded almost all of his time and attention. His constant vigil over the income and expenditure enabled him to put into place the financial policy of the Baptist Union which remains as a legacy to this day.

It was not only what he did but also how he did it that endears him to our hearts. He was completely consecrated to the task and herein he dedicated his life to the service of the Master whom he loved so clearly.

As a member of the executive his wide knowledge, sound judgment and realistic outlook were of great value. Because he was so down to earth, so realistic and practical, and also because of an unmovable faith in Christ our Lord his name soon found its way to numerous executive committees, the college council, the Christian Education and Publication Committee, the committee of evangelism and home missions and so on. On all these committees he served with distinction making valuable contributions to our denominational life and witness.

In 1952 he was appointed to the presidency and in that year he held three of the highest offices in the denomination simultaneously.

All who knew him saw him as a dedicated Christian, loyal colleague, wise counselor; a man with an alert mind and clear insight, strong character, unwavering integrity, humility and a keen sense of humor.

Rev Ewart Peter Riemer

The Rev Ewart Peter Riemer passed into the presence of the King on 3rd July 1942 in his ninety-eighth year.

Ewart was born of Lutheran parents and at the age of 23, reading the Bible while he was ill in a New York hospital, he was deeply convicted of sin but while studying the Gospel of John 3:16 found the way to be made righteous before God through the death of Jesus Christ his Lord and Saviour. He discovered believers’ baptism in his own study of the New Testament and followed the light as he saw it. Soon afterwards he was led to enter Rochester College where the money he had saved was used to study for the ministry.

In Ewart's third year at college a professor read to the students an appeal, from the Rev Hugo Gutsche of King William’s Town, for a helper. It was God’s call to the young man; he was ordained, married to a young lady who was baptised the same evening as himself, and set sail for South Africa. The young couple reached East London on 6th June 1874.

From 1874 to 1878 Hugo and Ewart together served the one church – the "German Baptist Church in British Kaffraria". So greatly was the work blessed that in 1878 the one church became two, brother Hugo remaining pastor of King William’s Town and its branches while brother Ewart became pastor of Berlin and its branches.

In 1890 Ewart left Berlin to become the Minister of the Porter Street Church, East London, but in 1893 a long illness led to his resignation, which the church very reluctantly accepted. As a token of affection the German and British Churches made him a presentation of 160 pounds. Having always given his “tenth” to the Lord, Mr. Riemer handed 16 pounds to the Baptist Union to start a fund for disabled ministers. That was the first contribution to the pension fund of today.

In 1901 a voyage to Germany greatly improved his health and in 1929 he returned to East London and became a member of the Porter Street Church, where he was beloved by all to the end of his days.

During his ministry in South Africa, Mr Riemer baptized 250 believers. God also used him to build and open five churches free of debt. It was in keeping with the supreme passion of his life, the salvation of souls, that he was one of the prime movers in the foundation of the South African Baptist Missionary Society, on the original committee of which he served.

A man of simple piety, deep conviction and earnest devotion to his Lord, the Rev Ewart Peter Riemer will be remembered with special honour as one of the pioneers of our cause.

Rev Arthur J.A. Rowland

On Monday 5th March 1973 the Rev Arthur J.A. Rowland passed into the presence of his Saviour after a long life spent serving Him. He had been involved in an incredibly wide range of Church and Missionary activities and his personal friendship and counsel had meant so much to so many individuals from every section of the community.

The service was conducted by the Pastor of the Cape Town Baptist Church, the Rev A.J. Erasmus, and among those who took part was the Rev A.S. Gilfillan, who represented the Baptist Union of Southern Africa, evangelical and civic leaders, representatives of the countless missionaries whom Arthur had befriended and the host of pupils whom he had taught in school and Sunday school, and upon whom he had left his mark, were all present to give thanks for a true and faithful friend.

The news of Arthur’s passing brought back to many minds, the momentous occasion, just less than two years previously, when this amazing old gentleman, still in possession of a remarkable vigour of mind and body, celebrated his one-hundredth birthday. It was an occasion which few who had any part in it will forget. As those who know him best reviewed his long life, beginning in that truly Christian home in Bronstone, Gloucestershire, where he had learned the Scriptures at his mother’s knee, and where, accepting the Lord Jesus Christ as personal saviour at the age of seventeen, he had begun a life of service for Him, it was Arthur’s Lord that all sought to glorify.

It is still thus that he would wish it – that all the glory would be his Master’s. In America and in the Czar’s palace in Russia, as a crafsman, and ultimately in South Africa as a woodwork teacher, firstly in Wellington and later in Cape Town, Arthur proved himself to be a workman for Christ, who needed not to be ashamed. At every opportunity he witnessed for his Saviour and, during the South African War, he volunteered as a Scripture Reader among the troops at the front.

The death of his wife, the former Miss Annie Janisch, daughter of the late H.R. Janisch, Governor of Saint Helena, in 1915, laid upon him the responsibility of rearing a young family alone. He proved to be a wonderful father, for he was, in his home, and in the Sunday Schools at Wale Street and Jarvis street, indeed a friend of the children. He superintended the Wale Street Baptist Sunday School for no less than forty years.

The Rev Arthur J.A. Rowland's practical Christianity knew no boundaries – to the rich, to the poor, of every race, he sought to give a helping hand in Christ’s Name. He was actively associated too, with a number of extra-denominational Christian organisations.

Written by: Syd Hudson-Reed

Rev John Russel

Charles Haddon (C.H.) Spurgeon (19 June 1834 – 31 January 1892) was a British Particular Baptist preacher. Spurgeon remains highly influential among Christians of different denominations, among whom he is known as the "Prince of Preachers". He was a strong figure in the Reformed Baptist tradition, defending the Church in agreement with the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith understanding, and opposing the liberal and pragmatic theological tendencies in the Church of his day.

The Rev John Russel was born at Peckham, on the 20th September, 1864, and on the 22nd November, 1883 he passed from death unto life.

John never tired of telling and retelling of this experience that transformed his life resulting in him becoming a minister of the Gospel of Lord Jesus Christ. He accordingly sought admittance into Spurgeon’s College where he received his training for the ministry while the College was still under the guidance and inspiration of that great Prince of Preachers Charles Haddon Spurgeon himself.

He came to South Africa as minister to the Cradock Baptist Church. The present commodious church building at Cradock is a lasting memorial of his ministry there. He later served the Church at Wynberg for two periods of twenty and four years. He retired from the active ministry after seven years of fragrant ministry at Cambridge, thus completing forty-three years in the active ministry. After his retirement it was granted to him to minister for a while to the various Churches of the East London area especially at Porter Street and Macleantown.

John was elected to the presidential chair of the Baptist Union of South Africa in the year 1908. He also served the denomination as statistical secretary for seven years from 1927 to 1933, a task for which his love of detail eminently fitted him.

During his first pastorate at Cradock he met and married Miss Withers who proved a true helpmeet to him in his many labours. Theirs was a romance of fifty years. Having laid the earthly remains of his dear one to rest, he himself followed a few months later.

John had a message, he had a passion. "Preach Christ," he said to a fellow minister shortly before his death, "Preach Christ and His finished work, preach Him as the coming King." His great sorrow during his last days was that he would never again have the opportunity of proclaiming that glorious message in all its fullness and power. It could truly be said that God "made manifest the savour of His knowledge" by John in every place where he was called to labour. For him, the Gospel was nothing abstract, but tremendously practical, something worth living for, something to die with. Towards the end he loved to repeat the words which at his own request were sung at the funeral service held at the Cambridge Church:

"Jesus the very thought of Thee With sweetness fills my breast Bur sweeter far thy face to see, And in thy presence rest."

The Rev John Russel passed to his rest having left a fragrant memory that will linger long with those who knew and loved him. He was indeed God’s true gentleman.

Written by: Syd Hudson-Reed